eastern phoebe with meal

[allanrube]

Taken yesterday at Plum Island. I liked the background. I cloned a branch on the right and reduced noise on the background.
D300 with 400VR + 1.7 tc - auto iso (450) 1/800 at 5.6

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/401916842_doeaY-L.jpg

[Arthur Morris]

SS = simply stunning. Great head angle, posture, sharpness, EXP, moth, and a killer BKGR. Is it o-of fall color? Nice perch too.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Arite said it all. Beautiful composition with a killer BG. Love it !!! Thanks for sharing allannube.

[bill kominsky]

As Artie said SS wonderful BG and lovely bird, thank you for sharing.

Bill

[Daniel Cadieux]

Too bad about the not-so-elegant abrupt ending to the perch, and for me I find the BG a bit too strong. Although the subject is perfectly exposed the strong BG makes it appear darker than it is. Don't get me wrong...it is very beautiful and I'm sure the colour was quite amazing, but I would still desaturate it a bit. The bird and prey are super cool!

[Beth Goffe]

I don't mind the broken-off end of the perch but I agree with Daniel that the yellow background, while beautiful, is oversaturated and distracts from the bird a bit. Otherwise, it's a really beautiful image and the insect is a real bonus.

[allanrube]

Beth and Daniel - if you are subbed to this thread - do you find this one better. I reduced the saturation of the bg - shows up on my monitor on the full size argb tiff - hope it shows up on the srgb save for web version.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/402779360_SwWLs-L.jpg

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes. it does show. Although the difference is subtle, it does look better to my eyes. There is less of a struggle between subject and BG now.

[Dave Mills]

Even though it's a beautiful backround it does have a tendacy to over power the bird and greatly reduce the birds impact.

[allanrube]

I reduced the saturation as much as I would without feeling the color became drab mustard. :confused:

Thanks for the comments.